Soreang

About Soreang

Soreang sits in the green bowl south of Bandung, where rice terraces climb toward the volcanic highlands of Ciwidey. Since 1987 the town has been the capital of Bandung Regency, and its government quarter, with the Sabilulungan tower and cultural hall, has grown into a modern civic centre for a mostly Sundanese population of about 117,000.

The area has deep roots. On Gunung Sadu, a 932-metre hill on the edge of town, terraced stone platforms in a half-circle are among the traces of a megalithic culture in the region. Much later, in 1921, the Dutch colonial railway reached Soreang on a line built to carry plantation produce out of the southern highlands; it was extended to Ciwidey in 1924 and closed in 1982, and the old station still stands.

Today most visitors come for football at the Si Jalak Harupat Stadium, a host venue of the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup, or pass through on the toll road on their way to the tea estates and crater lakes further south. Soreang is worth a slow afternoon of its own, though, with its town square, hill views and ricefields.